Published: Wed, 13 May 2015
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Seán Kelly, MEP for Ireland South, welcomed Commissioner for Agriculture Phil Hogan’s announcement regarding the first round of simplification measures to be introduced this year.
MEP Kelly highlighted that the proposed actions will greatly benefit farmers in Ireland, who have had many issues in dealing with direct payments and wrong declarations.
“The new measures, proposed by Commissioner Hogan on Monday and addressing farmers’ concerns will see changes in the Ecological Focus Areas (EFAs), Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS) and compensation brought in, providing farmers and national administrations with an easier and more simplified procedural mechanism to work with.”
The European Commission set out 6 concrete proposals for the first round of measures, namely mapping of declared EFAs, flexibility in EFAs identification in the EFA-layer, 4 meter gaps for hedges and wooden strips, limited buffer between the boundary and the EFA, simplified approach to specific types of permanent grassland in the LPIS and wrong declaration compensation in cases of missing EFA.
Other proposals dealing with the permanent grassland obligation and the classification of land laying fallow were addressed as well, with the Commission noting that 2 additional rounds of simplification measures will be put forward in 2015 and 2016.
Kelly underlined that CAP simplification is a necessary step for addressing many farmers’ issues and that he looked forward to working with the Commission and the Department on reaching constructive outcomes for these new measures.